While Battlefield V will feature three different ways to play the first-person shooter, it will all be connected by a shared progression system called The Company. DICE unveiled their latest entry in their Battlefield series today, and while the single-player and multiplayer components are returning in familiar ways, they also showed off a brand new cooperative experience called Combined Arms. All three offerings are very different in how they’ll play, but they will all feed into each other in terms of progression - which is all based around unlocking cosmetics. There are no paid DLC or season passes or loot boxes!
Officially announced today by Electronic Arts, Battlefield V will once again take the popular multiplayer shooter series to World War II (for the first time in almost a decade). Developer DICE are looking to keep the game feeling fresh despite the familiar setting, and they’re looking to focus on “unseen locations, untold stories, and unplayed gameplay moments” to do just that.
In-game progression takes place in five different branches: Player (which is the character’s prestige and rank), Soldier (the class rank that will unlock equipment), Weapons (every gun can be customized with attachments and modifications the player will unlock), Vehicles, and Chapter. The latter option is new to the series; it gives players new rewards for playing through specific events in the game’s live service, Tides of War. It’s here where new modes and events will be released for all players (again, all for free) and where daily and weekly challenges for bonuses and unlocks will occur.
The first-person shooter is connected through it allowing players to create their own “Company” of soldiers and vehicles, one for each class per side. Players can setup their eight soldiers alongside variants of vehicles and all their weapon customization. These characters will grow based on how their leader plays, and in-game currency is earned through completing various missions. The soldiers won’t appear in the single-player War Stories, but players will be able to earn new gear within that mode. Everything from how characters look to how they play can be modified, and each class has several different archetypes that can be swapped out mid-battle (for example, the Assault class has Recon and Grenadier options that offer different specialties).
Considering Battlefield V is all about creating a connected live service that keeps players coming back into DICE’s multiplayer first-person shooter, this move to a connected progression system makes a ton of sense. It gives players good reasons to go into every mode of the game, even the single-player stories, for rewards are given to those that continue to play.
There are some balancing concerns, as it naturally will lead to the players that put the most time into the game having the most options when they play. For example, it’s a huge advantage to have multiple tanks with different configurations at their disposal. It’ll be interesting to see how DICE handles this dilemma. The studio has already announced that all visual customization won’t impact statistics, so at least that won’t be an area of concern.
More: Battlefield V - Everything You Need to Know
Battlefield V releases on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 19. A play first trial will launch October 11, and the deluxe edition of the shooter will release three days early on October 16.
Source: DICE
